By Hannah Chappatte
CEO and Founder of Hybr
There's no hiding the fact that student life has never been more expensive. Over the past two years, the average student rent has increased by 14.6%, while living expenses loans have only increased by 5.2%. What's more, interest rates on loans have soared to 5.25%.
However, going to university remains a rite of passage for many students in the UK, and demand for higher education continues to grow. Apprenticeships are a great route, but most 17-18 year olds aren't ready to commit to a career path (most 27 year olds I know still don't know what they want to do).
If the UK is to maintain its reputation as one of the best study abroad destinations in the world, we need more student housing.
context:
Growing student numbers: There are currently 2.9 million students, growing at around 2% per year, but housing supply is not keeping up (a projected shortfall of 600,000 beds by 2026). Increasing pressure on universities: Universities are a source of pride and contributors to GDP, but they face brand and finance problems due to financial constraints and a lack of affordable student housing. PBSA is pricing students out of the market. The mismatch between demand and supply has made housing unaffordable for most students, putting huge financial pressure on young people.
The solution isn’t to continue building more expensive student rooms, but to build “desirable” housing with a better understanding of renters and market data.
why?
There is a mismatch between what student renters can afford and what properties are actually being built. Investors and developers shy away from investment opportunities in self-service, affordable student housing with no amenities. Instead, we need to align government policy, local councils, developers, investors, universities and students to ensure they are building the right type of housing using data on what renters are paying. Not enough data across the whole market (PRS, HMO, PBSA, co-living and even BTR) leads to a poor understanding of market dynamics and encourages housing development in the wrong cities (e.g. Coventry instead of Bristol). Instead, we need a more comprehensive dataset across the housing sector and more trust in third parties (e.g. Hybr) who play this role. This will give us better market visibility and enable us to make strategic decisions. Local authorities block student development because of negative stereotypes about the impact students have on local areas, but in reality, students boost local economies, increase diversity and bring vibrancy to cities across the UK. Instead, local governments should track the impact of urban youth and use this data as evidence to focus on policies that help attract and retain more students and graduates in student towns. Operators are shying away from the latest technology. Instead, operators should use PropTech solutions that prioritize users, save operational budgets and keep rents from rising. For example, automating rentals with Hybr eliminates the manual tasks of marketing your portfolio across different channels, managing and vetting inquiries, managing viewings to prevent no-shows, and expediting offers with smart analytics. Or investing in automated prompts to turn down the thermostat temperature. Both examples save operational budgets and improve renter experience. Many operators use different property management systems (PMS) and third-party tools that don't integrate via APIs. This creates a disconnected and inconvenient renter journey and slows down internal teams. Instead, PropTech solutions should work together to create a connected journey that saves your team time and improves the renter experience.
In summary, at Hybr we believe that improving stakeholder access to data across the housing sector will ensure the right strategic decisions are made about housing. We should be proud of the universities on offer across the UK and continue to promote the UK as an educational hub for tomorrow's leaders. With cities across the UK sharing in an estimated £25 billion in direct and indirect economic benefits through international students alone, we believe we can find the time to invest in technology that will improve the UK student housing experience, from development to leasing to operations.
